Developers retool part of their plan

Saturday

May 24, 2008 at 12:01 AM

By KAT HUGHES of the Tribune's staff

Two months after the Columbia City Council denied a development plan for 13 lots of the Crosscreek Center at Stadium Boulevard and Highway 63, the project's developers are seeking approval for two individual lots.

At the same time, the developers are engaged in a mediation process to reach an agreement with two neighborhood associations that opposed the project.

The mediation between the Shepard Boulevard and Timberhill Road neighborhood associations and developers, led by attorney Sarah Read, began with a meeting Thursday night.

The mediation is confidential, but those involved sent a letter to the city yesterday that said "if an agreement is reached, we will send it to you as soon as possible. It is our hope that we can reach an agreement that would apply to the entire plat."

Early this month, Stadium 63 Properties LLC - composed of developers John States, Dave Dunafon and Kevin Kearns - submitted two planned-commercial development plans to the Columbia Planning Department.

The plans for lots 106 and 109 list proposed uses as a restaurant and a convenience store - reportedly a Taco Bell and a Break Time - and they will go before the Columbia Planning and Zoning Commission for public hearings at its June 5 meeting.

From its beginning as an agenda item before the Columbia Planning and Zoning Commission in late December, the Crosscreek development drew staunch criticism from residents who learned that a car dealership was proposed as an anchor tenant. This use was a change from the list approved by the neighborhood in 2006.

Neighbors complained that developers didn't work with them early enough in the process to come to an agreement, and despite the developers' concessions regarding lighting, signage and landscaping, neighbors said they weren't enough to ensure a quality development at the high-traffic-volume intersection.

After hearing five hours of public testimony on the project in February, the Columbia City Council tabled the item before voting it down 4-3 at its next meeting.

Although the city doesn't regulate how long developers must wait to resubmit plans after they have been denied, it does have a one-year waiting period on denied zoning requests. The zoning ordinance states that applicants must wait a year before resubmitting "substantially similar" zoning requests that have either been denied by the city council or withdrawn after an unfavorable P&Z review.

In their March request, Crosscreek developers asked the city council to rezone 5.09 acres of Missouri Department of Transportation right of way to planned-commercial zoning so it would conform with zoning on 69 adjacent acres.

The development plan for the lease of the proposed restaurant includes a .09-acre right of way that needs to be zoned to planned commercial. Columbia Planning Director Tim Teddy said he thought it was not a "substantially similar" request to the earlier Crosscreek proposal.

Teddy said he did not consider the zoning time limit to apply because the applicants are requesting such a small portion of right of way to get zoned and the lot doesn't include a car dealership - the most contentious element in the previous plan's proposed uses.

"I believe this language should not be used as a 'gotcha!' for unpopular projects," Teddy said in an e-mail to States of the development group.

Teddy said he interprets the intent of the rule to discourage frivolous zoning requests, which he said he believes is not the case with the amount of investment the Crosscreek developers have put forth initially.

States sent a letter to the city council saying he doesn't believe this zoning request is similar to the last one.